শুক্রবার, ১০ মে, ২০১৩

Brain anatomy of dyslexia is not the same in men and women, boys and girls

May 8, 2013 ? Using MRI, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center found significant differences in brain anatomy when comparing men and women with dyslexia to their non-dyslexic control groups, suggesting that the disorder may have a different brain-based manifestation based on sex.

Their study, investigating dyslexia in both males and females, is the first to directly compare brain anatomy of females with and without dyslexia (in children and adults). Their findings were published online in the journal Brain Structure and Function.

Because dyslexia is two to three times more prevalent in males compared with females, "females have been overlooked," says senior author Guinevere Eden, PhD, director for the Center for the Study of Learning and past-president of the International Dyslexia Association.

"It has been assumed that results of studies conducted in men are generalizable to both sexes. But our research suggests that researchers need to tackle dyslexia in each sex separately to address questions about its origin and potentially, treatment," Eden says.

Previous work outside of dyslexia demonstrates that male and female brains are different in general, adds the study's lead author, Tanya Evans, PhD.

"There is sex-specific variance in brain anatomy and females tend to use both hemispheres for language tasks, while males just the left," Evans says. "It is also known that sex hormones are related to brain anatomy and that female sex hormones such as estrogen can be protective after brain injury, suggesting another avenue that might lead to the sex-specific findings reported in this study."

The study of 118 participants compared the brain structure of people with dyslexia to those without and was conducted separately in men, women, boys and girls. In the males, less gray matter volume is found in dyslexics in areas of the brain used to process language, consistent with previous work. In the females, less gray matter volume is found in dyslexics in areas involved in sensory and motor processing.

The results have important implications for understanding the origin of dyslexia and the relationship between language and sensory processing, says Evans.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/83mmHjB-scM/130508131831.htm

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Tax cheats target of new Harper Conservative ... - Financial Post

OTTAWA ? The Conservatives are beefing up the tools used to go after tax cheats in the hopes of recovering billions in lost revenue.

A team of six to 10 bureaucrats will be assigned to work only on pinpointing tax evaders and their efforts will be backed by $30 million over the next five years for new technology and other tools required for the hunt.

?Anyone trying to hide large sums of money offshore should know this ? they should declare all their assets now before the agency comes after them,? Revenue Minister Gail Shea said Wednesday.

Half of the money announced Thursday was previously committed in the March budget to build a system that will require banks and certain other financial institutions to report funds transfers of $10,000 or more to the Canada Revenue Agency.

The remaining $15 million will be reallocated from elsewhere within the CRA in order to increase compliance efforts, the minister said.

A number of other provisions to go after tax cheats were announced in March, including a new reward for people who blow the whistle on major evaders.

The hunt for tax dodgers has both financial and political motives.

Governments around the world were embarrassed in April after 2.5 million files on offshore tax havens were leaked to the media via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

And earlier this month, a House of Commons report suggested that ?taxpayer morale? was at risk if the government didn?t tell people it was actively working to improve the system.

Meanwhile, the 2013 budget suggested the Conservatives are banking on recouping $2.4 billion over the next six years via stronger compliance in order to erase the deficit.

It?s unclear how much money is actually lost each year to international tax evasion; independent estimates indicate Canada could be losing up to $7.8 billion annually in tax revenue.

Shea said Wednesday that since 2006, enforcement efforts have recovered about $4.5 billion.

The CRA has been among the departments hardest hit by ongoing federal budget cuts.

It?s expected to cut some $300 million out of its budget over the next three years and eliminate around 3,000 jobs.

Canadian Press

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/05/08/canada-cra-tax-cheats/

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Report: 4,693 people died on the job in America in 2011

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A new labor union report says 127 workers were killed on the job in 2011 in Virginia, 20 more than the previous year.

According to the report by the AFL-CIO, there were 4,693 workplace deaths nationwide in 2011, down by only three from the year earlier.

The report also notes that more than 3.8 million workers across all industries experienced work-related illnesses and injuries.

The union says that after years of steady declines, rates have been essentially unchanged. They say that means greater efforts are needed to reduce job injuries and deaths.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-127-killed-job-va-151818255.html

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মঙ্গলবার, ৭ মে, ২০১৩

Red Wings beat Ducks 3-2 in Game 4, tie series

DETROIT (AP) ? The Detroit Red Wings earned another home game.

Damien Brunner scored with 4:50 left in overtime, lifting Detroit to a 3-2 series-evening win over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night.

Detroit defenseman Jakub Kindl started the winning sequence, passing the puck from behind Detroit's net up the ice to Joakim Andersson. He tried to connect with teammate Gustav Nyquist only to have Hiller poke the puck away.

Brunner, playing in his first NHL season, was in perfect position in front of the net and swatted in the puck to end the game.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Anaheim and Game 6 is back in the Motor City on Friday night.

During the Red Wings' run of playing in 22 straight postseasons, they have won 11 of 19 series that were tied at 2-2.

Pavel Datsyuk scored a second tying goal for the Red Wings with 6:33 left in regulation. Brendan Smith made it 1-1 early in the third.

Matt Beleskey gave the Ducks their first lead 5:07 into the game and David Steckel put them ahead midway through the third period.

Hiller, who shut out Detroit in Game 3, stopped the first 32 shots and finished with 46 saves. Jimmy Howard had 31 saves for the Red Wings.

Detroit played with a sense of desperation, hoping not to face elimination on the road in Game 5. But it was on the receiving end of aggressive play early in the game.

Beleskey hit Detroit defenseman Kyle Quincey hard on the left side of the net and had enough space to shoot and score off his own rebound to put the Ducks ahead 1-0.

The Red Wings were outshooting Anaheim 27-15 through two periods, but had nothing to show for it.

Smith changed that thanks to a break, ending a 101:18 scoring drought that started after Detroit's 5-4 overtime win in Game 2. Smith's shot from just inside the blue line went off Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin and past Hiller 1:18 into the third period.

Steckel netted a go-ahead goal midway in the third period

The Red Wings, and their fans, thought Johan Franzen scored moments later, but referee Eric Furlatt waved it off and his call was upheld by video review.

Datsyuk gave the red-clad, white-towel waving crowd a reason to cheer when he tied it. He carried the puck up the left side, made a move to the outside that created space between him and defenseman Luca Sbisa, and flicked a wrist shot past Hiller's glove that knocked the water bottle off the top of the net.

That was his first goal of the series after leading the team with 15 scores and 49 points during the regular season.

Ryan Getzlaf, who had two goals and four points in the first three games, had a chance to put the Ducks up after Datsyuk's score, but his breakaway backhander was stopped by Howard.

The Red Wings were missing two key players and Anaheim was without one.

Detroit's Justin Abdelkader served his first of a two-game suspension for hitting Toni Lydman's head with his left shoulder. Red Wings rookie defenseman Danny DeKeyser was out for a second straight game with a broken right thumb. Lydman was scratched because of headaches and a sore neck and was replaced in the lineup by Sheldon Souray.

The Ducks had a power play early in overtime, but couldn't take advantage. In an even-strength situation late in overtime, Detroit controlled the puck and play in the Anaheim end, but couldn't get the puck past Hiller.

Then came the winner.

NOTES: Former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman scouted the game for the Chicago Blackhawks. ... The Ducks, who weren't in the playoffs in two of the previous three years, haven't advanced in the postseason since 2009, when they lost Game 7 of their second-round series against Detroit. ... Detroit D Niklas Kronwall had the hit of the night, hip-checking Ducks C Kyle Palmieri along the boards in the first period. ... The NHL announced Monday the Ducks will play the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 25, 2014, at Dodger Stadium.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/red-wings-beat-ducks-3-2-game-4-032243031.html

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সোমবার, ৬ মে, ২০১৩

Gerbils strut (scamper) their stuff on the runway

The American Gerbil Society's annual pageant, the Westminster dog show of the gerbil world, saw dozens of pint-size entrants this weekend in Massachusetts.

By Staff,?Associated Press / May 6, 2013

Diane Nott, of Elyria, Ohio, holds a gerbil prior to the society's annual New England pageant May 4, in Bedford, Mass. The small rodents were judged on body type and color, and featured agility demonstrations where they had to overcome various obstacles and race to the end of the course.

Rodrique Ngowi/AP Photo

Enlarge

The American?Gerbil?Society's annual pageant brought dozens of rodents scurrying to Bedford, Massachusetts, this weekend for a chance to win "top?gerbil."

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The competition called for agility demonstrations in which the?gerbils?must overcome obstacles and race to the end of a course. Breeders of the small animals vie for coveted ribbons based on body type and agility.

"A male?gerbil?should be a good, strong, hefty-looking?gerbil," said Libby Hanna, president of the American?Gerbil?Society. "If you are going to think of it in human terms, you might think of a football player ? somebody who's big, thick neck, nice, strong-looking male?gerbil."

An ideal female?gerbil?will have a more streamlined appearance that even humans covet, she said.

"So she would be strong and athletic-looking ? not really scrawny, but slim," said Hanna, who serves as a judge in the show. "I usually use a figure skater as my mental image or gymnasts ? so obviously a gymnast is not necessarily a big, big woman, but she's gonna be strong, muscular and athletic."

The Friday-Saturday show drew?gerbil?enthusiasts and breeders from around the country and culminates in the presentation of champion and breeder certificates.

Fourteen-year-old Sarah Kaden from Bordentown, New Jersey, thinks?gerbils?have great personalities.

"Even though they are so little, they are very different from each other and they smell a lot less than my brother's hamsters," she said Friday.

That sentiment is not surprising since the small, furry and inquisitive creatures look cute when they nibble on their food, stand on their hind feet or scurry around their environment.

Gerbils?are perfect pets for modern families as they don't require to be taken out for a walk, could easily fit in a small apartment and their tanks only need to be cleaned about once a week.

Still, some people freak out when they visit friends and see?gerbils?in the home.

"I've had a couple of people come to my house that actually didn't know that I had?gerbils. They were sort of freaked out, but I just told them that it was OK, they stay in their tanks, there was nothing to worry about," said Diane Nott who traveled from Elyria, Ohio, to compete in the show.

Gerbils?thrive in desert habitats and their growing popularity as pets led authorities in California and Hawaii to make it illegal to keep them since the weather there would make it possible for escaping animals to flourish in wild colonies that would damage crops and native plants.

At the Bedford show, each animal undergoes a health check. Inspectors look at the whiskers, teeth and mouths and check to ensure the rodents have no runny noses, bugs, loss of fur on their tails or other signs of health problems.

Donna Anastasi of Waltham got hooked on?gerbils?after buying them for her daughters when they were younger.

"Anyone can buy a $12?gerbil?and get into the sport of?gerbil?showing or?gerbil?agility," said Anastasi, who is also vice president of the American?Gerbil?Society. "It's very fun ... easy and affordable and something you can do with your kids."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/rHGrnVGvKh8/Gerbils-strut-scamper-their-stuff-on-the-runway

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PROMISES, PROMISES: When Obama's promises conflict

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Absent a magic potion or explosive economic growth, it was all but inevitable President Barack Obama would have to break some of his campaign promises to keep others. If there's one thing that distinguished them besides their ambition, it was their incompatibility.

Cut a staggering $4 trillion from deficits while protecting big benefit programs, subsidizing more health care, plowing extra money into education and avoiding tax increases on everyone except the rich? Not on this Earth.

The postelection reality is starting to shake out now, though how it will all settle can't yet be known.

To reach for his promised deficit reduction, Obama has proposed breaking his tax promise. Toward the same end, his pledge from four years earlier that he wouldn't trim cost-of-living benefits in Social Security has given way to a proposal to do just that.

None of that might happen.

Republicans, who oppose tax increases, and Democrats, who object to curbs on entitlements, could block his path and in doing so save Obama from breaking his own promises.

If they do, though, that big pledge to bring down deficits by $4 trillion would surely have no hope at all.

That's the overarching dilemma in a catalog of campaign promises facing varying prospects over the next few years.

Obama is driving toward success on his energy goals. He's got a decent chance of achieving an immigration overhaul. Activists who once ridiculed his promise to be a "fierce advocate" of gay rights say he's come around and become just that.

Much else is bogged in the budget swamp or is a nonstarter for one reason or another. Anything costing big money comes with big obstacles, and one promise that cost relatively little, gun control, is dust. Yet Obama, in powering through with his health care overhaul, financial regulation and stimulus spending in his first term, has shown that tough causes aren't always lost ones.

A look at Obama's leading promises and what's happening with them:

Debt:

The promise: Cut deficits by $4 trillion over a decade.

Prospects: Deals with Congress to cap spending and raise taxes on wealthier people, along with the resulting savings on interest payments on the debt, have already achieved a projected $2.6 trillion in deficit reduction for the years ahead. But the rest of the $4 trillion will be tough. To get there, he proposes a 10-year $583 billion tax increase, an additional layer of tax increases from slower indexing of tax brackets for inflation and modest curbs to federal health care programs, all helping to produce further interest savings.

Republicans are so far standing firm against further tax increases and liberal Democrats are a tough sell on trimming entitlement programs and other spending. This, as the Congressional Budget Office warns that "such high and rising debt would have serious consequences" if unchecked. Among those consequences are reduced national savings and investment, a potential fiscal crisis and higher interest costs for the government.

___

Economy:

The promise: An approach to deficit reduction that doesn't undermine the recovery or unduly burden the middle class. Also, cut some corporate tax rates, penalize those who shift work overseas and create 1 million manufacturing jobs by 2016.

Prospects: Obama has had mixed success cutting the deficit without slowing growth. He struck a deal with Congress to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a set of tax increases and spending cuts in January. Businesses responded by stepping up hiring and spending.

But he and Republican leaders allowed Social Security taxes to rise, cutting take-home pay for nearly all working Americans. He wasn't able to avoid $85 billion in automatic spending cuts that started March 1.

Manufacturing has been creating more jobs but adding 1 million more by 2016 is unlikely. That would require 250,000 new factory jobs per year, nearly double the current pace. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent in April, the lowest in four years of recession and ragged recovery. The economy is growing modestly but steadily. It expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter.

___

Education:

The promise: Raise the high school graduation rate from 78 percent to 90 percent by 2020 and make the country No. 1 in college graduates by that year. Cut federal money to colleges that don't control tuition costs.

Prospects: A rocky path at best. There's little momentum in Congress for the spending required, his pledge to make the U.S. first in college graduates is a long shot and tuitions are climbing without the promised federal penalty.

Obama has proposed $36 billion for Pell Grants in 2013. Yet those grants now cover less than one-third of the cost of a four-year public college. In 1980, they covered 69 percent of the costs.

___

Energy:

The promise: Cut oil imports by half by 2020.

Prospects: He could well deliver on this promise. New drilling technologies have unlocked enormous domestic reserves of crude oil and natural gas. Policies that mandate increasing use of renewable fuels and better vehicle fuel economy have helped slash demand. That has translated into a dramatic reduction in oil imports and increase in diesel and gasoline exports.

But oil and gasoline are global commodities. If Mideast turmoil disrupts oil production there, prices worldwide will rise, even if the U.S. gets little or no oil from that region. The U.S. economy won't ever be free from the effect of high oil prices. It just may be able to get much less oil from abroad.

___

Entitlements:

The promise: No cuts in Social Security cost-of-living increases. Protect Medicare from Republican proposals to turn it into a voucher-like program.

Prospects: Obama is ready to break his Social Security pledge from the 2008 campaign. He favors a new measure of inflation that would gradually trim benefit increases in Social Security, Medicare and other programs. The change, if adopted, eventually would cut Social Security benefits $560 a year for an average 75-year-old, $136 for a 65-year-old.

His approach to Medicare savings is different from one proposed by House Republicans to transform the program. He'd cut Medicare payments to service providers and is proposing that a growing share of seniors pay higher premiums over time, based on their incomes. Such Medicare changes were foreseen before the 2012 election. Meantime, Washington is expanding Medicaid to bring in more of the low-income uninsured.

For years, budget hawks have insisted that huge entitlements must be on the table for true fiscal discipline to be achieved. They're on the table now.

___

Gay rights:

The promise: Be a "fierce advocate" for gay rights. Obama endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

?Prospects: The course for gay marriage will be shaped by the Supreme Court, expected to rule on the matter in June. It's allowed in 10 states and the District of Columbia; many other states seem unlikely to follow suit unless forced by Congress or the court. But cultural attitudes are changing, as did Obama's views. His administration argued in favor of gay marriage rights to the court.

It seems unlikely the court will order gay marriage to be legalized in all states but its ruling could help same-sex married couples on estate taxes, Social Security benefits and other tangible matters. In his first term Obama lifted the ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces.

___

Global warming:

The promise: "Continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet."

Prospects: Obama probably will take more steps to reduce the pollution blamed for climate change, but they are unlikely to be of the scale needed to help much in slowing the heating of the planet. Any policy to reduce heat-trapping pollution will target coal burned by power plants and oil refined for automobiles; those industries have powerful protectors in both parties.

Obama has acted on his own, to increase mileage standards and impose pollution control on future power plants. More such executive action is likely; a law is not.

___

Gun control:

The promise: Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, expand background checks, and more, a postelection pledge made after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Prospects: Obama said he would "put everything I've got into this." His everything wasn't enough. Entrenched support for gun rights and a powerful campaign by the National Rifle Association blocked efforts to pass a single aspect of Obama's package, the first attempt to significantly change the nation's gun laws in over two decades.

Polling found as many as 90 percent of those questioned supported expanded background checks, but even that fell short in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

___

Health care:

The promise: Ensure access to affordable insurance for all and no gutting of Medicare or Medicaid.

Prospects: Obama is likely to achieve his goal of extending coverage to the uninsured. Affordability is another question. Costs are expected to go up, not down, contrary to what Obama promised in his first term.

Some Medicare cuts Obama is willing to enact would hit beneficiaries. Well-to-do seniors and growing numbers of upper middle-class retirees could face higher monthly premiums.

___

Immigration:

The promise: Overhaul the immigration system to provide eventual citizenship to those who came here illegally, tighten borders and smooth legal immigration.

Prospects: Obama failed to deliver on his first-term promise to rework immigration law. His chances of pulling that off are much better now.

Even with a bipartisan Senate group having released legislation to accomplish those goals, however, success is not certain. Even so, the political climate is ripe for change thanks to a shift in Republican attitudes in 2012, when Latino and Asian voters backed Obama in record numbers.?

___

Iran:

The promise: "Do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Prospects: Sanctions are destroying Iran's economy but not its will to enrich more uranium. By his own timeline, Obama has about a year left to see if diplomacy and sanctions can get Iran to slow its enrichment of uranium and assure the world its nuclear program is peaceful. If the U.S. and its partners cannot succeed, the stage may be set for an American or Israeli military intervention.

___

Taxes:

The promise: Raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. No tax increases for people making less. Ensure millionaires pay at least 30 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Prospects: Obama's 2014 budget, if passed, would break his promise to avoid any tax increases for middle and low-income people. He proposes a new inflation yardstick that would expose most people to higher income taxes, especially poorer workers.

He kept his promise to raise taxes on the rich, though at different income levels than he laid out in the campaign: $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Republicans dismiss his proposed minimum rate for millionaires as a gimmick.

___

Associated Press writers Dina Cappiello, Philip Elliott, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Christopher S. Rugaber, Stephen Ohlemacher, Jonathan Fahey, Bradley Klapper, Erica Werner, David Crary, Nedra Pickler, and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/promises-promises-obamas-promises-conflict-130205095.html

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Pebble gets a golf app now, two-way app support within a month

Pebble gets a golf app now, twoway app support within a month

Pebble and its developer partners have been working at a manic pace in recent days, and they've just released a flood of status updates that prove they're not easing up. Along with confirming that the first red watches have shipped inside of the past week, Pebble is now claiming one of its first notable golf apps through an updated version of Mobile Software Design's Freecaddie. Would-be PGA stars can check the hole distance and par when paired up with an Android phone, with iOS support due soon. At least some owners can look forward to a bright future, too. An SDK update within the next month will allow two-way interaction between apps and watches, albeit only with Android devices in any realistic way -- iOS releases bound for the App Store won't support bi-directional use "at this time." That's certainly an unfortunate discrepancy, although we may be too busy perfecting our swings to notice.

[Image credit: Thomas Harbinson, Twitter]

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রবিবার, ৫ মে, ২০১৩

Israel strikes Syria, says targeting Hezbollah arms

By Dominic Evans and Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah.

As Syria's two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran's confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky.

"Night turned into day," one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the targets, the Jamraya military base.

But for all the angry rhetoric in response from Tehran and from the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it was unclear whether the second such raid in 48 hours would elicit any greater reaction than an Israeli attack in the same area in January, which was followed by little evident change.

The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping al Qaeda Islamist "terrorists" and said the strikes "open the door to all possibilities"; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbor while facing defeat at home.

Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesitating to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was acting to prevent Iran's Hezbollah allies receiving missiles that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats to attack Tehran's nuclear program.

What Israel was not doing, they stressed, was getting drawn into a debate that has raged in the United States lately of whether the alleged use of poison gas by Assad's forces should prompt the West finally to give military backing to oust him.

Israel was not taking sides in a civil war that has pitted Assad's government, a dour but mostly toothless adversary for nearly 40 years, against Sunni rebels, some of them Islamist radicals, who might one day turn Syria's armory against the Jewish state.

It is a mark of how two years of killing in which at least 70,000 Syrians have died has not only inflamed a wider, regional confrontation between Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Arabs, some of them close Western allies, but have also left Israel and Western powers scrambling to reassess where their interests lie.

Egypt, the most populous Arab state and flagship of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts where elected Islamists have replaced a Western-backed autocrat, has no love for Assad. But on Sunday it condemned Israel's air strikes as a breach of international law that "made the situation more complicated".

ROCKETS TARGETED

Israel does not confirm such missions explicitly - a policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals. But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces, as was a raid early on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama said had been justified.

A Western intelligence source told Reuters: "In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his aim for Israel was to "guarantee its future" - language he has used to warn of a willingness to attack Iran's nuclear sites, even in defiance of U.S. advice, as well as to deny Hezbollah heavier weapons.

He later flew to China on a scheduled trip, projecting confidence there would be no major escalation - though Israel has reinforced its anti-missile batteries in the north.

Syrian state television said bombing at a military research facility at Jamraya and two other sites caused "many civilian casualties and widespread damage", but it gave no details. The Jamraya compound was also a target for Israel on January 30.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a flattened building spread over the size of a football pitch, with smoke rising from rubble containing shell fragments. It did not identify it.

Syrian state television quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the United Nations saying: "The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory."

Obama defended Israel's right to block "terrorist organizations like Hezbollah" from acquiring weapons after Friday's raid, and a White House spokesman said on Sunday: "The president many times has talked about his view that Israel, as a sovereign government, has the right to take the actions they feel are necessary to protect their people."

It was unclear that Israel had sought U.S. approval for the strikes, although the White House spokesman said: "The close coordination between the Obama administration, the United States of America, is ongoing with the Israeli government."

Obama has in recent years worked to hold back Netanyahu from making good on threats to hit facilities where he says Iran, despite its denials, is working to develop a nuclear weapon.

On Sunday, some Israeli officials highlighted Obama's reluctance to be drawn into new conflict in the Middle East to explain Israel's need for independent action.

Syria restricts access to independent journalists. Its state media said Israeli aircraft struck three places between Damascus and the nearby Lebanese border. The city also lies barely 50 km (30 miles) from Israeli positions on the occupied Golan Heights.

Tehran, which has long backed Assad, whose Alawite minority has religious ties to Shi'ite Islam, denied the attack was on armaments for Lebanon and called for nations to stand firm against Israel. A senior Iranian commander was quoted, however, as saying Syria's armed forces were able to defend themselves without their allies, though Iran could help them with training.

Hezbollah, a Shi'ite movement that says it is defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression, declined immediate comment.

ISRAELI CONCERNS

Analysts say the Fateh-110 could put the Tel Aviv metropolis in range of Hezbollah gunners, 100 km (60 miles) to the north, bolstering the arsenal of a group that fired some 4,000 shorter-range rockets into Israel during a month-long war in 2006.

"What we want is to ensure that inside the Syrian chaos we will not see Hezbollah growing stronger," Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, a confidant of Netanyahu, told Army Radio.

"The world is helplessly looking on at events in Syria, the Americans in particular, and this president in particular," he added of Obama. "He has left Iraq, Afghanistan and has no interest in sending ground troops to Syria ... That is why, as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting them with determination and without getting too involved."

Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by Syrian activists showed a series of blasts. One lit up the skyline of Damascus, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts.

Syrian state news agency SANA said Israeli aircraft struck in three places: northeast of Jamraya; the town of Maysaloun on the Lebanese border; and the nearby Dimas air base.

"The sky was red all night," one man said from Hameh, near Jamraya. "We didn't sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued through the night."

Central Damascus was quiet on the first day of the working week, and government checkpoints seemed reinforced. Some opposition activists said they were glad strikes might weaken Assad, even if few Syrians have any liking for Israel: "We don't care who did it," Rania al-Midania said in the capital. "We care that those weapons are no longer there to kill us."

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Maayan Lubell, Dan Williams, Jeffrey Heller and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Roberta Rampton Aboard Air Force One and Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/explosions-shake-damascus-syria-says-israel-attacked-001502034.html

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Report: Train with chemicals derails in Belgium

BRUSSELS (AP) ? Belgian media say that hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire in northern Belgium.

Amateur video showed the train ablaze in the early hours of Saturday; in daylight, the train cars could be seen forming a zig-zag over the track.

Media, citing a statement from the East Flanders government, said that authorities were investigating if a death of someone in the area of the derailment was linked to the accident. The statement said 17 people were injured.

The fire was extinguished Saturday evening, the reports said. Houses within 500 meters of the train were evacuated ? and residents were asked to stay away even after the fire went out. Others farther away were asked to stay at home and close their windows.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-train-chemicals-derails-belgium-195436202.html

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Individual brain cells track where we are and how we move

May 2, 2013 ? Leaving the house in the morning may seem simple, but with every move we make, our brains are working feverishly to create maps of the outside world that allow us to navigate and to remember where we are.

Take one step out the front door, and an individual brain cell fires. Pass by your rose bush on the way to the car, another specific neuron fires. And so it goes. Ultimately, the brain constructs its own pinpoint geographical chart that is far more precise than anything you'd find on Google Maps.

But just how neurons make these maps of space has fascinated scientists for decades. It is known that several types of stimuli influence the creation of neuronal maps, including visual cues in the physical environment -- that rose bush, for instance -- the body's innate knowledge of how fast it is moving, and other inputs, like smell. Yet the mechanisms by which groups of neurons combine these various stimuli to make precise maps are unknown.

To solve this puzzle, UCLA neurophysicists built a virtual-reality environment that allowed them to manipulate these cues while measuring the activity of map-making neurons in rats. Surprisingly, they found that when certain cues were removed, the neurons that typically fire each time a rat passes a fixed point or landmark in the real world instead began to compute the rat's relative position, firing, for example, each time the rodent walked five paces forward, then five paces back, regardless of landmarks. And many other mapping cells shut down altogether, suggesting that different sensory cues strongly influence these neurons.

Finally, the researchers found that in this virtual world, the rhythmic firing of neurons that normally speeds up or slows down depending on the rate at which an animal moves, was profoundly altered. The rats' brains maintained a single, steady rhythmic pattern.

The findings, reported in the May 2 online edition of the journal Science, provide further clues to how the brain learns and makes memories.

The mystery of how cells determine place

"Place cells" are individual neurons located in the brain's hippocampus that create maps by registering specific places in the outside environment. These cells are crucial for learning and memory. They are also known to play a role in such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer's disease when damaged.

For some 40 years, the thinking had been that the maps made by place cells were based primarily on visual landmarks in the environment, known as distal cues -- a tall tree, a building -- as well on motion, or gait, cues. But, as UCLA neurophysicist and senior study author Mayank Mehta points out, other cues are present in the real world: the smell of the local pizzeria, the sound of a nearby subway tunnel, the tactile feel of one's feet on a surface. These other cues, which Mehta likes to refer to as "stuff," were believed to have only a small influence on place cells.

Could it be that these different sensory modalities led place cells to create individual maps, wondered Mehta, a professor with joint appointments in the departments of neurology, physics and astronomy. And if so, do these individual maps cooperate with each other, or do they compete? No one really knew for sure.

Virtual reality reveals new clues

To investigate, Mehta and his colleagues needed to separate the distal and gait cues from all the other "stuff." They did this by crafting a virtual-reality maze for rats in which odors, sounds and all stimuli, except distal and gait cues, were removed. As video of a physical environment was projected around them, the rats, held by a harness, were placed on a ball that rotated as they moved. When they ran, the video would move along with them, giving the animals the illusion that they were navigating their way through an actual physical environment.

As a comparison, the researchers had the rats -- six altogether -- run a real-world maze that was visually identical to the virtual-reality version but that included the additional "stuff" cues. Using micro-electrodes 10 times thinner than a human hair, the team measured the activity of some 3,000 space-mapping neurons in the rats' brains as they completed both mazes.

What they found intrigued them. The elimination of the "stuff" cues in the virtual-reality maze had a huge effect: Fully half of the neurons being recorded became inactive, despite the fact that the distal and gate cues were similar in the virtual and real worlds. The results, Mehta said, show that these other sensory cues, once thought to play only a minor role in activating the brain, actually have a major influence on place cells.

And while in the real world, place cells responded to fixed, absolute positions, spiking at those same positions each time rats passed them, regardless of the direction they were moving -- a finding consistent with previous experiments -- this was not the case in the virtual-reality maze.

"In the virtual world," Mehta said, "we found that the neurons almost never did that. Instead, the neurons spiked at the same relative distance in the two directions as the rat moved back and forth. In other words, going back to the front door-to-car analogy, in a virtual world, the cell that fires five steps away from the door when leaving your home would not fire five steps away from the door upon your return. Instead, it would fire five steps away from the car when leaving the car. Thus, these cells are keeping track of the relative distance traveled rather than absolute position. This gives us evidence for the individual place cell's ability to represent relative distances."

Mehta thinks this is because neuronal maps are generated by three different categories of stimuli -- distal cues, gait and "stuff" -- and that all are competing for control of neural activity. This competition is what ultimately generates the "full" map of space.

"All the external stuff is fixed at the same absolute position and hence generates a representation of absolute space," he said. "But when all the stuff is removed, the profound contribution of gait is revealed, which enables neurons to compute relative distances traveled."

The researchers also made a new discovery about the brain's theta rhythm. It is known that place cells use the rhythmic firing of neurons to keep track of "brain time," the brain's internal clock. Normally, Mehta said, the theta rhythm becomes faster as subjects run faster, and slower as running speed decreases. This speed-dependent change in brain rhythm was thought to be crucial for generating the 'brain time' for place cells. But the team found that in the virtual world, the theta rhythm was uninfluenced by running speed.

"That was a surprising and fascinating discovery, because the 'brain time' of place cells was as precise in the virtual world as in the real world, even though the speed-dependence of the theta rhythm was abolished," Mehta said. "This gives us a new insight about how the brain keeps track of space-time."

The researchers found that the firing of place cells was very precise, down to one-hundredth of a second, "so fast that we humans cannot perceive it but neurons can," Mehta said. "We have found that this very precise spiking of neurons with respect to 'brain-time' is crucial for learning and making new memories."

Mehta said the results, taken together, provide insight into how distinct sensory cues both cooperate and compete to influence the intricate network of neuronal activity. Understanding how these cells function is key to understanding how the brain makes and retains memories, which are vulnerable to such disorders as Alzheimer's and PTSD.

"Ultimately, understanding how these intricate neuronal networks function is a key to developing therapies to prevent such disorders," he said.

Other authors of the study included Pascal Ravassard, Ashley Kees and Bernard Willers, all lead authors, and David Ho, Daniel A. Aharoni, Jesse Cushman and Zahra M. Aghajan of UCLA. Funding was provided by the W.M. Keck foundation, a National Science Foundation career award grant and a National Institutes of Health grant (5R01MH092925-02).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Mark Wheeler.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. P. Ravassard, A. Kees, B. Willers, D. Ho, D. A. Aharoni, J. Cushman, Z. M. Aghajan, M. R. Mehta. Multisensory Control of Hippocampal Spatiotemporal Selectivity. Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1126/science.1232655

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Q3BZmjM55TI/130503094954.htm

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Study uncovers mechanism for how grapes reduce heart failure associated with hypertension

Study uncovers mechanism for how grapes reduce heart failure associated with hypertension

Friday, May 3, 2013

A study appearing in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry? demonstrates that grapes are able to reduce heart failure associated with chronic high blood pressure (hypertension) by increasing the activity of several genes responsible for antioxidant defense in the heart tissue. Grapes are a known natural source of antioxidants and other polyphenols, which researchers believe to be responsible for the beneficial effects observed with grape consumption. This study, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and conducted at the University of Michigan Health System, uncovered a novel way that grapes exert beneficial effects in the heart: influencing gene activities and metabolic pathways that improve the levels of glutathione, the most abundant cellular antioxidant in the heart.

An estimated 1 billion people worldwide have hypertension, which increases the risk of heart failure by 2 to 3-fold. Heart failure resulting from chronic hypertension can result in an enlarged heart muscle that becomes thick and rigid (fibrosis), and unable to fill with blood properly (diastolic dysfunction) or pump blood effectively. Oxidative stress is strongly correlated with heart failure, and deficiency of glutathione is regularly observed in both human and animal models of heart failure. Antioxidant-rich diets, containing lots of fruits and vegetables, consistently correlate with reduced hypertension.

In this study, conducted at the University of Michigan Health System, hypertensive, heart failure-prone rats were fed a grape-enriched diet for 18 weeks. The results reproduced earlier findings that grape consumption reduced the occurrence of heart muscle enlargement and fibrosis, and improved the diastolic function of the heart. Furthermore, the mechanism of action was uncovered: grape intake "turned on" antioxidant defense pathways, increasing the activity of related genes that boost production of glutathione.

"Our earlier studies showed that grapes could protect against the downward spiral of hypertensive heart failure, but just how that was accomplished ? the mechanism ? was not yet known," said lead investigator E. Mitchell Seymour, Ph.D. "The insights gained from our NIH study, including the ability of grapes to influence several genetic pathways related to antioxidant defense, provide further evidence that grapes work on multiple levels to deliver their beneficial effects."

Seymour noted that the next phase of the NIH study, which will continue into 2014, will allow his team to further define the mechanisms of grape action, and also look at the impact of whole grape intake compared to individual grape phytonutrients on hypertension-associated heart failure.

"Our hypothesis is that whole grapes will be superior to any individual grape component, in each of the areas being investigated," said Dr. Seymour. "The whole fruit contains hundreds of individual components, which we suspect likely work together to provide a synergistic beneficial effect."

The insights gained from this research will further the knowledge on grapes and heart health, but will also provide translational information on the value of dietary (whole foods) and dietary supplement approaches for prevention of heart disease stemming from chronic hypertension.

"The NIH grant is allowing the team at the University of Michigan Medical System to expand its work in this important area and further highlight the multi-faceted role of grapes in supporting heart health," said Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission. "This work will also provide key insights into the role of whole fruit versus individual components of a fruit, using grapes as the benchmark."

###

? Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2013.01.008.

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 63 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128115/Study_uncovers_mechanism_for_how_grapes_reduce_heart_failure_associated_with_hypertension

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Sahara olive tree: Genetic heritage to be preserved

May 3, 2013 ? The Saharan cousin of Mediterranean olive trees remains largely unknown. However, this subspecies (called the Laperinne's olive tree) is of great interest for several reasons. IRD researchers and their partners showed that its longevity is ensured by its original vegetative reproduction. Extremely drought-resistant, this "relict" tree could act as a genetic resource to improve its domestic counterparts, provided conservation actions are implemented to prevent its disappearance.

The most resistant of all olive trees

Contrary to its cultivated counterpart, the Laperrine's olive tree did not choose the mildness of the Mediterranean climate. It grows in the middle of the Sahara desert at an altitude of between 1400 and 2800m, spanning southern Algeria, Niger and northern Sudan. In order to survive in this inhospitable environment over the past several million years, it had to adapt to extremely arid conditions. In order to preserve this exceptional genetic heritage over the course of time, it developed an unusual reproductive strategy. As researchers have demonstrated in a recent synthetic study, it reproduces through vegetative or clonal growth.

A genetic resource for cultivated plants

A symbol of Saharan mountain ecosystems, the Laperrine's olive tree is a source of wood for local populations. Its leaves are also a valued resource to feed animals and are used as a traditional pharmacopoeia. Scientists also underline its agronomic benefits. Indeed, it can be crossed with cultivated olive trees to improve various properties, such as the drought-resistance of the latter. Thanks to molecular analyses, biologists discovered that such crossing has already been carried out previously, confirming the possibility of hybridizing the two subspecies.

An endangered tree

Developing a conservation niche like the Laperrine's olive tree is not a risk-free process. Today it pays the price of its isolation and genetic protectionism. The limited gene flow among populations and its vegetative reproduction method resulted in less genetic mixing over long periods of time. Under current climatic conditions, the number of trees also tends to decrease. This combination of factors leads to the gradual erosion of the genetic diversity, which lowers the ability of the Laperrine's olive tree to adapt to environmental changes and means this subspecies is potentially endangered in the long term.

This research into the ecology and evolutionary history of the Laperrine's olive tree helps to better identify the danger facing this tree -- endemic to the Sahara desert -- and to establish the priorities for conservation programmes.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institut de Recherche pour le D?veloppement (IRD).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. G. Besnard, F. Anthelme, D. Baali-Cherif. The Laperrine?s olive tree (Oleaceae): a wild genetic resource of the cultivated olive and a model-species for studying the biogeography of the Saharan Mountains. Acta Botanica Gallica, 2012; 159 (3): 319 DOI: 10.1080/12538078.2012.724281

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/OPMsP2pW8hM/130503094711.htm

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Research reveals consequences of a lifetime of sexual competition

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Research published today in the journal Evolution reveals how fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) that are subjected to continual competition from mating rivals, mate for longer and produce more offspring in early life.

But they pay a high price ? a shorter lifespan and reduced mating ability later in life.

It is the first study to quantify the consequences of lifetime exposure to rivals. Researchers say that 'trade-offs' between reproduction and lifespan are common across the whole animal kingdom, so in principle the findings could be applicable more generally.

The study was led by Prof Tracey Chapman from UEA's School of Biological Sciences and Dr Amanda Bretman, now at the University of Leeds.

Prof Chapman said: "We exposed males to rivals throughout their lifetimes and found that while this caused them to mate for longer and have a higher reproductive output ? these benefits disappeared early, after the third mating.

"The males took significantly fewer mating opportunities in later life and had significantly shorter lifespans than flies which had not been exposed to rivals. Meanwhile those which had been kept on their own continued to mate into old age, accumulating more matings overall.

"In general, trade-offs between different aspects of reproduction and lifespan are very common and can be found in almost every organism in which we can measure them - including humans," she added. "We don't know whether this specific set of circumstances occurs in humans, but trade-offs in general certainly do. It could be something that researchers studying human life histories could look for."

Researchers compared flies that had been exposed to rivals with those which had not. They gave both sets of flies the opportunity to mate regularly throughout their lives.

They recorded the length and frequency of mating for both groups, as well as the number of offspring sired by both groups.

At the end of the 78-day project, all of the male flies which had been exposed to rivals had been dead for at least four days. But more than a quarter of those which had not been exposed to rivals were still alive.

"If males die sooner in the wild, the early mating benefits seen in males exposed to competition may be more important than the benefits of living and mating for longer," added Dr Bretman. "There is a great scope for further investigations into how relevant our experiment might be in representing the natural lifespan and potential trade-offs between early and late survival and reproduction."

###

University of East Anglia: http://comm.uea.ac.uk/press

Thanks to University of East Anglia for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128098/Research_reveals_consequences_of_a_lifetime_of_sexual_competition

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From Toronto to Dagestan; Canadian jihadi draws parallels with Tsarnaev

By Maria Golovnina

UTAMYSH, Dagestan, Russia (Reuters) - A mess of rubble, ash and charred vehicles is all that's left at the desolate farmhouse where a Canadian Muslim convert died fighting his last battle alongside Islamist insurgents in the Russian region of Dagestan.

At the time, few people beyond local villagers noticed William Plotnikov's death in a region where skirmishes occur daily. But almost a year on, Plotnikov has emerged into the limelight following the Boston Marathon bombings.

The abrupt transformation of a Russian ?migr? into a die-hard rebel fighter draws eerie parallels with the life of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the son of Chechen immigrants in the United States who is now prime suspect in the Boston attack.

In the village of Utamysh, a collection of squat houses in a valley ringed by the steep mountains of Dagestan, Plotnikov is known simply as "Kanadets" - or the Canadian.

"The Canadian, I saw him twice, yes. He came to the mosque. He looked like everyone else," Arslangerey-haji, a local imam, said at his small village mosque.

"He'd just pray and leave. He was out with the others in the forest," he added, using a local euphemism for joining the militants fighting Russian rule of the North Caucasus.

On July 14, 2012, Russian forces surrounded the rebels near Utamysh and pounded them with artillery. Part of the farm where Plotnikov and his fellow fighters were hiding was reduced to rubble. At least seven people including Plotnikov were killed.

Since last month's Boston bombings, attention has turned to others who may have followed similar lives to Tsarnaev. Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper and Canada's National Post have reported in detail on the last years of Plotnikov.

An ethnic Russian who emigrated to Toronto with his parents as a teenager in 2005, Plotnikov converted to Islam as a young man and flew to Dagestan to join the Islamist militants.

There is no evidence Plotnikov knew Tsarnaev but some similarities are striking. Both were young men when they plunged into Islam, possibly out of frustration with the challenges of their adopted home countries, and both were passionate boxers.

Plotnikov's bemused father, Vitaly, described how his son changed from a typical teenager who borrowed his father's credit card to go ski-ing to someone devoted to prayer. "Somebody changed his mind in Canada," he told CBC TV. He said he thought Tsarnaev had had the "same problem".

Both Plotnikov and Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan in the first half of 2012 to explore their religion. They lived within 120 km (75 miles) of each other on the Caspian Sea coast.

U.S. investigators suspect Tsarnaev's experience in Dagestan played an important role in his radicalization, particularly if they establish that he met any militants during his stay at his family home in the regional capital of Makhachkala.

While Tsarnaev was with his parents, Plotnikov joined the insurgency and retreated to the rebel camp with other militants in the lush mountains south of Makhachkala, where he died.

Tsarnaev left Dagestan in a rush two days after Plotnikov's death, and flew back to the United States via Moscow, according to Novaya Gazeta. He was shot dead by police nine months later, after the Boston bombings which killed 3 people and wounded 264.

SIMPLE GRAVE

Tucked away in a remote corner of Utamysh cemetery and overgrown with weeds, Plotnikov's grave is a simple white tombstone featuring the Islamic crescent moon and star. The Russian inscription says: "Plotnikov Vilyam Vitalievich". Date of birth: May 3, 1989. He was 23 when he died.

In a village like Utamysh, news travels fast. The arrival of new faces never escapes notice. Yet, when asked about Tsarnaev, villagers shook their heads and said they had never heard of him visiting their lands.

"They are both dead now. Maybe they knew each other. Who knows?" Dzhamaludin Aliyev, the village head, said with a shrug as he gazed at Plotnikov's tombstone.

"We just buried him here as a Muslim. He did not live here. He lived up there in the forest," he added, pointing at a green hill towering over the village.

Salaat, a local pensioner, said the fair-skinned ethnic Russian Canadian stood out immediately as soon as he came to the village, home to about 3,000 people.

"He came here after hooking up with some Utamysh youngsters in another village up north," she said. "He lived here for several months with them, then he disappeared into the forest."

Foreigners are rarely spotted fighting for rebels in the Caucasus, just as ethnic Russians rarely convert to Islam.

Yet, as conflicts continue in the Caucasus, nationalist claims to independence that dominated the 1990s have given way to calls for a pan-Caucasus Islamic state - including from people who went to fight in countries such Afghanistan and Syria, or those who simply view Russian rule as corrupt and oppressive.

No one knows for sure how many militants are out in the mountains but most are now believed to be based in Dagestan, particularly in the south where Utamysh is located.

For locals in Utamysh, last year's farmhouse battle was the closest the conflict had struck their homeland in many years after a period of relative peace.

Aliyev said the insurgents' bodies were initially taken to Makhachkala as part of the investigation.

But Vitaly Plotnikov, who lives in Toronto, flew to Dagestan immediately afterwards and brought the body back to the village, seeking permission to bury him there, Aliyev said.

"I don't know why he didn't take the body to Canada. I guess it's expensive. So he brought the body back here," Aliyev said. "The father just said to me: 'I should've looked after him better'. For him it was a huge tragedy."

Dzhalil Alatsiyev, deputy head of the local administration in charge of security, said the insurgents had been under surveillance by Russia's FSB security forces for several months.

"They never came to the village. They were hiding there," he said, pointing at the mountain range.

Describing the insurgents as Wahhabis - or adherents to one of the most austere forms of Islam, he added: "It's easy to tell them apart. They have long beards. They pray differently. We are all Muslim here. But these people are different."

The farmhouse is now deserted. Its owner has been jailed for helping the insurgents. One shed was flattened entirely by artillery fire. The main building was heavily damaged, its interior a mess of broken glass, metal and camouflage jackets.

SECURITY HEADACHE

For Moscow, Dagestan - one of the poorest and most ethnically diverse places in Russia - is a huge headache.

Its forces are still struggling to quell persistent attacks by Islamist militants more than a decade after Moscow fought two separatist wars in the adjacent republic of Chechnya.

Although it is firmly under Moscow control, Dagestan has a long history of resistance to Russian rule. Many harbor resentment against Russian security forces' heavy-handed tactics against suspected militants and their families.

Their feelings go back centuries. The valley around Utamysh was the site of fierce battles between local tribes and Russian forces sent by Peter the Great to annex Dagestan during a war with Persia in the early 18th century.

Today, speaking up for the insurgents can land people in jail. Yet even in this village, dominated by people from the Kumyk Turkic-speaking ethnic minority, some appear sympathetic.

Rashiya-hanum Adykova, a 56-year-old who runs a dairy farm high up in the hills, said she had seen militants pass through her fields but they never touched her family. "They don't do anything to us because we are just old people," she said.

The village imam said he disapproved of the tactics used against the insurgents.

"A lot of people are innocent but they are still being taken away," said Arslangerey-haji. "If they are criminals of course they should be arrested. But there is a lot of chaos here. Everyday someone is dying. We are tired of it."

(Additional reporting by Janet Guttsman in Toronto; editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/toronto-dagestan-canadian-jihadi-draws-parallels-tsarnaev-084211267.html

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May Day rally turns violent in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) ? Police used "flash bangs" and pepper spray against some protesters who pelted them with rocks and bottles late Wednesday, as violence erupted during May Day in Seattle.

Several dozen protesters, many using bandanas to cover their faces, began clashing with police in downtown Seattle hours after a peaceful immigrant-rights march ended.

Protesters threw rocks and bottles at police officers and news crews. As they moved through downtown Seattle to another nearby neighborhood, they flung construction street barriers, trash cans and newspaper bins on the streets in an attempt to block advancing police officers. Windows of local businesses were broken and vehicles with people in them were banged around.

"We're a bigger and better city than this. I look at this and I am disappointed that this is the picture the world sees of us," Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said late Wednesday.

Police used their bikes to shield businesses and eventually began to use pepper spray and "flash bang' grenades ? releasing a flash of light, smoke and a loud noise ? to disperse the crowd. But that pushed the group to the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and they left a wake of overturned trash cans and debris on the street, as well as smashed windows on local businesses.

In the aftermath, 18 people were arrested, the Seattle Police Capt. Chris Fowler said.

Fowler said that eight officer were injured, mostly scrapes and bruises. One officer was hit by a rock on her knee.

The violence stemmed from a march that billed itself as an "anti-capitalism" protest. Initially, the protesters concentrated on a business sector of downtown Seattle.

Despite lacking a permit to march, Seattle police escorted them as through downtown.

"That first march came downtown. It was absolutely peaceful...it was almost a festive affair and they had some serious messages, too, that they wanted to express. No incidents whatsoever," McGinn said. "The second march was very different, and it wasn't just merely because it was unpermitted. I think it also had to do with the nature of the individuals in it and what they wanted to do."

There were no immediate cost estimates of the damage left.

This is the second year in a row violence has broken out during May Day in Seattle. Last year, anarchists broke windows of store fronts, including Niketown, and vehicles and used smoke bombs. Protesters also targeted a federal building, breaking windows and doors.

Olivia One Feather of Covington joined the crowd Wednesday night because she wanted to see how police handled the protest. She said she wasn't impressed, adding that she was pepper sprayed in the face while trying to video record officers.

Of the protesters, she said, "They're doing what we need to do to stand up to ourselves. These are our streets and we have the right to take them."

Many of the protesters are self-described anarchists. A local anarchist website said protesters would attempt to disrupt May Day.

After the clashes died down, local residents were seen cleaning up trash left by the protesters.

The violence marred a May Day that immigrant-rights activists hoped would put a focus back on immigration reform. Thousands of people marched about 2 1/2 miles from the Central District toward Seattle's downtown Jackson Federal Building after a May Day rally supporting immigrant rights and labor.

Many carried signs, with messages such as "We are America," and "There are no illegal humans." One sign suggested forgetting about marijuana and instead asking the United States to "Legalize my mom," a reference to Washington's recent legalization of marijuana.

Other demonstrations and rallies in Olympia, Mount Vernon, Spokane, Vancouver, Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Yakima went along peacefully.

____

Associated Press writers Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash., Shannon Dininny in Yakima, Wash. and Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/may-day-rally-turns-violent-seattle-032255547.html

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২ মে, ২০১৩

'Downton Abbey' adds first black character

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/downton-abbey-adds-first-black-character-214855938.html

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Italy's Letta says June EU summit must focus on youth jobs

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-letta-says-june-eu-summit-must-focus-071613304.html

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বুধবার, ১ মে, ২০১৩

Trade Forex with the All New iPhone, iPad and Android App from Vantage FX UK and MetaTrader4

? (April 30, 2013) Trade Forex with the All New iPhone, iPad and Android App from Vantage FX UK and MetaTrader4

London (PRWEB UK) 30 April 2013

Smartphones and foreign exchange trading go together like fish and chips.

What Does Mobile MetaTrader 4 Offer?

This system provides up-to-the-second-pricing and real-time synchronicity with the MetaTrader 4 platform. It allows traders to monitor their Vantage FX UK account, open and close live positions, as well as experience a host of other benefits, thanks to a secure direct link to their MT4 account.


From your iPhone, Android or iPad traders can:

Access real-time pricing and execution
Open & close positions from the palm of their hand
Place & amend pending orders
Access detailed account history
Use real-time interactive charting
Access free technical indicators
Change timeframes and customise charts
Use custom drawing tools to help develop trading strategies

How To Get It

Step one is to get a Vantage FX UK Live Account, with which traders will enjoy:

Tight Spreads From 0.4 pips
Up to 500:1 leverage
Web and mobile platforms
No dealing desk / STP
Instant order execution
Segregated, Secure Client Funds

Step two requires traders to download the app to their particular smartphone:

Android Search for Vantage FX in the Android Market and download Vantage FX MT4 droidTrader
iPhone Search for Vantage FX in the App Store and download Vantage FX MT4 iTrader
iPad Search for Vantage FX in the App Store and download Vantage FX MT4 iTrader

Alternatively traders can try a 30-day demo account using Vantage FX UKs risk free demo environment and $20,000 worth of virtual funds. Sign up for a free demo account now.

About Vantage FX UK

Vantage FX UK is an internationally recognised Forex broker based in the City of London, providing foreign exchange trading services to clients in the UK, the EU and the rest of the world.

What sets forex brokers Vantage FX apart is its wide range of services and outstanding level of customer support. The company strives to provide an intuitive, interactive Forex experience by continually innovating and taking advantage of the latest trading technology, such as MetaTrader 4 and Expert Advisors as well as offering handy tools such as a forex market calendar.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/vantage-fx-uk/new-mobile-trading/prweb10680011.htm.

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Source:PRWEB.COM Newswire. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=2574672

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